There is a huge error ongoing at the moment which Orange aren't able to cope with and it seems to be affecting thousands of people in London and around the country. Alcatel, the company which installs the equipment in BT exchanges for Orange seems to have put substandard equipment (you might even go as far to say p**s-poor) in dozens of exchanges and cannot seem to sort it out!
A few members of my team in customer support have raised this in a system we have called Fault Manager but no-one is able to get a resolution except that Orange Head office will be looking into it.
Thought you should know now because i know this is gonna be a huge issue very shortly.
Thanks for the info much appreciated by me and I would think by many others.
The ' Fault ' has been ongoing in lots of exchanges since LLU from as early as February in my case.
It isn't forensic science to deduce that if problems escalated after LLU, but were OK previously, then the problem is with the LLU process and nothing else!
Seeing as Head Office have known about it since then , though they pretend it to be a new phenomena, and have still got their head in the sand 6 months on, I'll not hold my breath till a solution is found!
If they threw as much money at the problems they throw at advertising they might solve it quicker!
Knowing upper management and ' beanie counter ' thinking, Alcatell more than likely offered several equipment options and advice on the BEST options.
What's the betting Wanadoo/Orange in their infinite wisdom chose the cheapest option? and are now reaping the costly benefits, customer loss, customer dissatisfaction etc.
If only they would come clean and be honest about it all to everyone.
mm....old news indeed. This is the same lame excuse wandadoo gave me almost two months ago and was the final straw for me to leave. Whoever is at fault in the threee ring circus of wanadoo, BT and Alcatel, the end user and customer certainly is not at fault.
Too bad they don't spend as much time fixing the problem as they do making excuses, fobbing off customers and creating misdirection,
What error does this give on a Speedtouch ADSL modem?
Usually error 0721.
Admin, I highly doubt Orange will ditch Alcatel, having to transfer all the LLU lines over to new equipment risks causing a whole host of new problems.
Site AdminJoined: 07 Apr 2006Posts: 784Location: United Kingdom
Hi Elhana
Yes I agree - just interested to know how they will resolve the pickle they appear to be getting themsleves into.
With other broadband providers now cutting the cost of (or offering extras with) broadband, and o2 (now Sky) now in on the scene, the competition is getting stronger.
I must say that Be* appeals to me! But I'm hanging on for a little longer until I start to recommend it (and use it of course!)
1) Orange force Acatell to address the problem ( contract law etc.) providing it is Alcatels problem! see my previous post.
If Alcatel provided the equipment at the behest of Orange against Alcatels qualified advice then it would be Oranges problem!
2)Orange use another company to service / correct the equipment to resolve the problem, that is providing the equipment belongs to Orange!
3)Orange use another company to replace all the LLU equipment provided by Alcatell.
4)Orange sit with the present LLU problem for the time being, don't LLU any more exchanges, buy future services from wholesalers, then move present LLU customers over to the ' bought in ' services.
3&4 would be the quickest options for us all ( there are many more options but I don't want to go on and on and elaborate the point ).
I, and possibly yourselves, can see a nice ' little earner ' for the corporate lawyers in the above.
If this is the case and litigation is the chosen path regretfully it won't be weeks or months before the problem, or should I say OUR problem, is solved.
The way broadband is evolving, and the speed at which competitors are moving ( see Admins post ) if Orange don't bite the bullet and get on with solving the problem, they could quite easily get left behind.
They won't be the first or last LARGE MULTINATONAL COMPANY to have complacency and inertia be their downfall.
Regretfully the losers as always would be staff and customers!
Thing is I don't think the overall problems with LLU are quite as bad as some make out. Sure they seem to drag on a lot longer and are generally more problematic than IPstream stuff but that in itself leads to the problems being highlighted all the more.
There's probably never going to be any real public figures on the levels of problems on Orange through BT compared to Orange through LLU.
Any news on what exactly Orange will be doing about this?
Have they issued any documents (or scripts! - sorry) to the Tech or Customer Support agents?
Any insight as to when this will be resolved / whether Orange plan to use another contractor?
Any news from Alcatel?
Orange are at the moment refusing raising it as a major issue, even though the calls are stacking up here in the call centre.
No documents have been sent down to us and all calls with the same diagnosys, are still to be treated as individual cases.
Alcatel have sent no updates and Orange themselves seem to be ignoring the issue.
I have advised my team of CSA's of the impending storm to come but we are just the frontline agents, they will not be imforming us of anything until say, press starts asking questions etc.
Anyone know of any journalists interested in asking the right questions with the right people??
Thank you for your many very informative posts, it has helped me, and I am sure many others, to understand problems and find some solutions and is greatly appreciated.
I'm not getting at you but at Orange with this post.
I think the problems are severely, grossly, underrated, reasons as follows.
1) Orange won't provide details of the volume of calls expressing dissatisfaction / problems with service. Too embarrassing to admit the numbers?
2) Problems should not " drag on a lot longer and are more problematic than IPstream stuff " Orange, not the customer, have decided and committed to provide X level of service to customers, THEY, ORANGE, SHOULD HAVE TESTED THE SYSTEM PRIOR TO ROLL OUT, AND HAD A ROBUST FAULT DIAGNOSTIC / REPAIR SYSTEM /TEAMS IN PLACE, to address problems.[/u]
3) We must not forget that postees on this site and other sites highlighting Orange problems, or seeking help, still have (a) [u]'an Internet presence', and (b) are computer / Internet savvy ! , or have friends who can help.
What about the many many ' thousands' of poor s*ds ' who's only contact is the customer / tech support lines, for what their worth, because they [u]HAVE NO ACCESS TO THE INTERNET THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN [/u
Their voices will never be heard on these sites.
Replying to:
"Thing is I don't think the overall problems with LLU are quite as bad as some make out. Sure they seem to drag on a lot longer and are generally more problematic than IPstream stuff but that in itself leads to the problems being highlighted all the more."
Well it's frustrating for us too, I'd love to go through and fix all the problems but when there's sod all you can do but put through another line test what else are we to do?
What I said before is just from my experience of the faults it's nothing official but it is a view from the opposite side.
I understand and appreciate your frustrations with being unable to solve the problems, and thanks again for your help and advice.
Many also don't realise the fact that you are stuck in the middle, customers moaning about problems on one side, and managers moaning about targets on the other!
You have it coming at you from both directions.
Can't you go ' upstairs ' and bang the directors heads on their desks !!!!!
Things are being improved, it's just slow going at times. There's loads of improvements in the systems and processes since I first started and there's still changes going through right now which will improve things.
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